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As per usual, anything said during the show is subject to change by CIG and may not always be accurate at the time of posting. Also any mistakes you see that I may have missed, please let me know so I can correct them. Enjoy the show!

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

Today's Happy Hour was a GameDev featurette with Gareth Bourne using the SolED editor to show how they build solar systems.

SolED was designed to make the creation of solar systems much quicker and give developers a way to easily setup systems in 2D and 3D.

The objects in the solar systems are all affected by physics so placement of planets within a system in relation to a star has an affect on the speed of the orbit and the gravity around them.

In the first half of the show Gareth showed the creation of the Stanton system with the second half being the community created solar system.

The community system was named "Nope" with it having three stars and four planets. The stars were named Jared, Gareth, and Red One with the planets being planet "Nope", Spider planet, Vanduul Dog planet, and Ctrl-S because Gareth forgot to save until he was deep into creating the system.

Overall the show was a fantastic way to show off the capabilities of the SolED from being able to place the planets and moons and in real time zoom all the way down the surface of said places and look back up at the stars and planets and moons and stations in the system.

Summary

The show is live! Today's Happy is a GameDev feature using the SolED editor to make a solar system! Gareth Bourne is a Live Designer in Manchester U.K. and is responsible for a lot of content going into the game and the tech involved to make that content happen.

[What is the SolED editor?] In a basic form is a visualiser to help a dev to understand large spaces and make the barebones of a solar system quickly and easily. There was a lot of work that went into the editor to make it as fluid and streamlined as it is.

They've moved into the editor now and it's just a large empty space. They're going to create two solar systems, one being Stanton and showing how the creation of that goes, and then the next will be a custom made system with suggestions from fans.

He started with the Stanton star and then placed Crusader. It's fascinating to watch the lighting be affected in real time because the sun is the light source and he positioned it in a such a way to get the optimal light. To test that, they brought Crusader extremely close to show how the lighting changes, but still give the sense of scale.

He added Security Outpost Kareah in the blink of an eye and worked on it for a bit to get it to the right distance. Which looks easy, but actually took a bit of effort because of the vast scale he has to work with.

So just for fun they moved Crusader to the otherside of the system to show how the lighting changed on the moon and outpost and what used to take a long time became a simple drag and drop as not only did he drag Crusader easily, but all the children associated with it automatically came with it.

So now he's placed Deymar and moved all the way into the atmosphere to show the terrain and it's just awesome how quickly he can transition.

[Do Stars have geometry and size?] For 3.0 no, but in the future they will vary in size as there's a lot more solar systems to come.

[Can you adjust the speed of an orbit?] The speed of the orbit is calculated by the physics and it's relation to the star and other objects in the solar system, but it's possible if you really wanted to.

Someone asked if they could show the rotation of the planet in real time (At a faster speed) and Gareth said he could, but it requires loading a different level, so possibly later in the stream he'll do it.

They're taking a small break to set up for the second solar system which is affected by community suggestions.

First question is: How many stars should the system have? 1 or 2. Without even finishing the poll, two stars will win by a landslide guaranteed

Now they're going to see if it'll even load the system with all the crazy adjustments they've been making.

Well they aborted that plan cause it was taking awhile, Gareth is going to show off a planet rotating.

Unfortunately after trying to force a faster rotation speed, it didn't work. Looks like something is broken or perhaps that ability is turned off.

That's the end of Happy Hour for today! Later today is the weekly newsletter along with the updated 3.0 production schedule. Thanks to all backers and subscribers for their support to make Star Citizen happen.

A polite Canadian who takes pride in making other peoples day brighter. He enjoys waffles with Maplesyrup, making delicious puns and striving for perfection in screaming at the T.V. during hockey games.